AMERICAN TO BE HELD UNTIL END OF TRIAL
An Israeli court has ordered an Illinois man charged with plotting anti-Muslim violence detained until the end of court proceedings against him.
Everett Adam Livvix was arrested in November and charged with weapons possession. The indictment accused Livvix of planning to blow up Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem. Israeli police said Livvix, posing as a former U.S. Navy SEAL, also turned down an offer from a Palestinian to assassinate President Barack Obama during his visit in 2013.
Livvix has denied the charges, according to his lawyer, Gal Wolf.
— Associated Press
The 37 children, most of whom have lost a parent in fighting between Hamas and Israel, were to enter Israel on Sunday and spend a week visiting Jewish and Arab communities and a zoo. They were also going to travel to the West Bank for a meeting with the Palestinian president.
But a bus carrying the children and their adult chaperones was turned back when it reached the main crossing between Gaza and Israel. Hamas spokesman Eyad Bozum said the decision was made “to protect the culture of our children and our people” from normalizing relations with Israel. He said Hamas would make sure such a trip “will never happen again.”
Israel and Hamas fought a 50-day war this summer that killed more than 2,100 Palestinians and caused heavy damage in the impoverished coastal enclave. On the Israeli side, the fighting killed 72 people and disrupted the lives of millions of people.
Yoel Marshak, an Israeli organizer, said the visit was meant to a show a positive side of Israel and promote peace.
“These children will one day be the leaders of Gaza, and they would have remembered this trip and known that we can live in peace, side by side,” he said.
Marshak said he received written approval for the trip three weeks ago from Hamas and that the cancellation came as a surprise. He said he and other organizers were working to reorganize the trip.
Said Abu Luli, a 13-year-old Palestinian boy whose father was killed in an electrical accident in 2009, said he was disappointed he could not make the trip.
“I was very happy that I will go and was saddened when we were prevented,” he said. “I was hoping to visit the places in the West Bank and our lands in Palestine,” he added.
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